I’ve heard the accusation that Sufis get so lost in ecstasy and dhikr that they neglect the five daily prayers and the outward duties. Is that fear justified?

The fear you have heard rests on a misunderstanding of what this path is. In the way of our masters, the remembrance of Allah is never a rival to the prayer; it is the fragrance that rises out of it. The one who tastes the sweetness of dhikr becomes more eager to stand before his Lord, not less.

The Qur’an joins the two together as if they were a single breath:

“Establish the prayer; indeed the prayer restrains from immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of Allah is greatest.”

Qur’an, Al-Ankabut 29:45 · meaning

Allah does not place prayer and remembrance on two opposite roads. He names the prayer first, and then, within that very prayer, He shows us the greatest remembrance. So the salah is not a formality that the seeker rises above; it is the ladder itself, and every rung of the ascent is one of its five appointed hours. A house without these five pillars does not stand, however beautifully it is decorated.

And Allah taught our master Musa, peace be upon him, that the prayer is the very vessel of remembrance:

“Establish the prayer for My remembrance.”

Qur’an, Ta-Ha 20:14 · meaning

In authentic tasawwuf the five prayers are the trunk of the tree and dhikr is the sap that runs through it; neither lives without the other. If a gathering ever loosens its grip on the Sacred Law and imagines itself carried beyond the prayer, such people have wandered off the road, not climbed above it. The perfected ones of this path, our Naqshbandi masters among them, were known precisely for the constancy of their salah.

Put the whole matter on a simple scale. Our first work is sound belief and faithful obedience, and everything else stands beside that as a gift, never as a substitute. If Allah grants you states and sweetness along with your obedience, receive them with thanks. If He grants you the obedience and no sweetness at all, be content and thank Him still, for you have been given the thing that actually carries a person home. A taste that arrives while the prayer is being left behind is no ascent at all; it is fine wrapping around an empty box.

So let the accusation pass. The nearer a heart draws to Allah, the more carefully it guards the times of prayer, for the lover wants every meeting with the Beloved.

One small step: For the next prayer that comes, arrive a minute or two early, sit quietly, and let your heart whisper “Allah, Allah” a few times before you say Allahu Akbar, so that your dhikr and your salah walk in hand as one.